While Horatius was exclaiming thus and the decemvirs could not

discover the proper bounds either of their anger or forbearance, nor

saw how the matter would end, Gaius Claudius, who was the uncle

of Appius the decemvir, delivered an address more in the style of

entreaty than reproach, beseeching him by the shade of his brother and

of his father, that he would hold in recollection the civil society

in which he had been born, rather than the confederacy nefariously

entered into with his colleagues, adding that he besought this much

more on Appius's own account, than for the sake of the commonwealth.

For the commonwealth would claim its rights in spite of them, if it

could not obtain them with their consent: that however, from a great

contest great animosities were generally aroused: it was the result of

the latter that he dreaded. Though the decemvirs forbade them to speak

on any subject save that which they had submitted to them, they felt

too much respect for Claudius to interrupt him He therefore concluded

the expression of his opinion by moving that it was their wish that no

decree of the senate should be passed. And all understood the matter

thus, that they were judged by Claudius to be private citizens;[49]

and many of those of consular standing expressed their assent in

words. Another measure, more severe in appearance, which ordered the

patricians to assemble to nominate an interrex, in reality had much

less force; for by this motion the mover gave expression to a decided

opinion that those persons were magistrates of some kind or other who

might hold a meeting of the senate, while he who recommended that

no decree of the senate should be passed, had thereby declared them

private citizens. When the cause of the decemvirs was now failing,

Lucius Cornelius Maluginensis, brother of Marcus Cornelius the

decemvir, having been purposely reserved from among those of consular

rank to close the debate, by affecting an anxiety about the war,

defended his brother and his colleagues by declaring that he wondered

by what fatality it had occurred, that those who had been candidates

for the decemvirate, either these or their friends, had above all

others attacked the decemvirs: or why, when no one had disputed for

so many months while the state was free from anxiety, whether legal

magistrates were at the head of affairs, they now at length sowed

the seeds of civil discord, when the enemy were nearly at the gates,

except it were that in a state of confusion they thought that their

object would be less clearly seen through. For the rest, it was unfair

that any one should prejudge a matter of such importance, while their

minds were occupied with a more momentous concern. It was his opinion

that, in regard to what Valerius and Horatius alleged--that the

decemvirs had gone out of office before the ides of May--the matter

should be discussed in the senate and left to them to decide, when the

wars which were now impending were over, and the commonwealth restored

to tranquility, and that Appius Claudius was even now preparing to

take notice that an account had to be rendered by him of the election

which he himself as decemvir held for electing decemvirs, whether they

were elected for one year, or until the laws, which were wanting,

were ratified. It was his opinion that all other matters should be

disregarded for the present, except the war; and if they thought that

the reports regarding it were propagated without foundation, and that

not only the messengers but also the ambassadors of the Tusculans had

stated what was false, he thought that scouts should be dispatched to

bring back more certain information; but if credit were given both to

the messengers and the ambassadors, that the levy should be held at

the very earliest opportunity; that the decemvirs should lead the

armies, whither each thought proper: and that no other matter should

take precedence.

The junior patricians almost succeeded in getting this resolution

passed on a division. Accordingly, Valerius and Horatius, rising again

with greater vehemence, loudly demanded that it should be allowed them

to express their sentiments concerning the republic; that they would

address a meeting of the people, if owing to party efforts they were

not allowed to do so in the senate: for that private individuals,

whether in the senate or in a general assembly, could not prevent

them: nor would they yield to their imaginary fasces. Appius, now

considering that the crisis was already nigh at hand, when their

authority would be overpowered, unless the violence of these were

resisted with equal boldness, said, "It will be better for you not to

utter a word on any subject, except the subject of discussion";

and against Valerius, when he refused to be silent for a private

individual, he commanded a lictor to proceed. When Valerius, from

the threshold of the senate-house, now craved the protection of the

citizens, Lucius Cornelius, embracing Appius, put an end to the

struggle, not in reality consulting the interest of him whose interest

he pretended to consult;[50] and after permission to say what he

pleased had been obtained for Valerius by means of Cornelius, when

this liberty did not extend beyond words, the decemvirs attained their

object. The men of consular rank also and senior members, from the

hatred of tribunician power still rankling in their bosoms, the

longing for which they considered was much more keenly felt by the

commons than for the consular power, almost preferred that the

decemvirs themselves should voluntarily resign their office at some

future period, than that the people should once more become prominent

through hatred against these. If the matter, quietly conducted, should

again return to the consuls without popular turbulence, that the

commons might be induced to forget their tribunes, either by the

intervention of wars or by the moderation of the consuls in exercising

their authority.

A levy was proclaimed without objection on the part of the patricians;

the young men answered to their names, as the government was without

appeal. The legions having been enrolled, the decemvirs proceeded to

arrange among themselves who should set out to the war, who should

command the armies. The leading men among the decemvirs were Quintus

Fabius and Appius Claudius. The war at home appeared more serious than

abroad. The decemvirs considered the violence of Appius better

suited to suppress commotions in the city; that Fabius possessed

a disposition rather lacking in firmness in a good purpose than

energetic in a bad one. For this man, formerly distinguished at home

and abroad, had been so altered by his office of decemvir and the

influence of his colleagues that he chose rather to be like Appius

than like himself. To him the war among the Sabines was intrusted,

Manius Rabuleius and Quintus Paetilius being sent with him as

colleagues. Marcus Cornelius was sent to Algidum with Lucius Minucius,

Titus Antonius, Caeso Duillius, and Marcus Sergius: they appointed

Spurius Oppius to assist Appius Claudius in protecting the city, while

all the decemvirs were to enjoy equal authority.

The republic was managed with no better success in war than at home.

In this the only fault in the generals was, that they had rendered

themselves objects of hatred to their fellow-citizens: in other

respects the entire blame lay with the soldiers, who, lest any

enterprise should be successfully conducted under the leadership and

auspices of the decemvirs, suffered themselves to be beaten, to their

own disgrace and that of their generals. Their armies were routed both

by the Sabines at Eretum, and by the Æquans in Algidum. Fleeing from

Eretum during the silence of the night, they fortified their camp

nearer the city, on an elevated position between Fidenae and

Crustumeria; nowhere encountering on equal ground the enemy who

pursued them, they protected themselves by the nature of the ground

and a rampart, not by valour or arms. Their conduct was more

disgraceful, and greater loss also was sustained in Algidum; their

camp too was lost, and the soldiers, stripped of all their arms,

munitions, and supplies, betook themselves to Tusculum, determined to

procure the means of subsistence from the good faith and compassion of

their hosts, and in these, notwithstanding their conduct, they were

not disappointed. Such alarming accounts were brought to Rome, that

the patricians, having now laid aside their hatred of the decemvirs,

passed an order that watches should be held in the city, and commanded

that all who were not hindered by reason of their age from carrying

arms, should mount guard on the walls, and form outposts before the

gates; they also voted that arms should be sent to Tusculum, besides

a re-enforcement; and that the decemvirs should come down from the

citadel of Tusculum and keep their troops encamped; that the other

camp should be removed from Fidenas into Sabine territory, and the

enemy, by their thus attacking them first, should be deterred from

entertaining any idea of assaulting the city.

In addition to the reverses sustained at the hands of the enemy, the

decemvirs were guilty of two monstrous deeds, one abroad, and the

other in the city. They sent Lucius Siccius, who was quartered among

the Sabines, to take observations for the purpose of selecting a site

for a camp: he, availing himself of the unpopularity of the decemvirs,

was introducing, in his secret conversations with the common soldiers,

suggestions of a secession and the election of tribunes: the soldiers,

whom they had sent to accompany him in that expedition, were

commissioned to attack him in a convenient place and slay him. They

did not kill him with impunity; several of the assassins fell around

him, as he offered resistance, since, possessing great personal

strength and displaying courage equal to that strength, he defended

himself against them, although surrounded. The rest brought news into

the camp that Siccius, while fighting bravely, had fallen into an

ambush, and that some soldiers had been lost with him. At first the

account was believed; afterward a party of men, who went by permission

of the decemvirs to bury those who had fallen, when they observed that

none of the bodies there were stripped, and that Siccius lay in the

midst fully armed, and that all the bodies were turned toward him,

while there was neither the body of any of the enemy, nor any traces

of their departure, brought back his body, saying that he had

assuredly been slain by his own men. The camp was now filled with

indignation, and it was resolved that Siccius should be forthwith

brought to Rome, had not the decemvirs hastened to bury him with

military honours at the public expense. He was buried amid the great

grief of the soldiery, and with the worst possible infamy of the

decemvirs among the common people.

Another monstrous deed followed in the city, originating in lust, and

attended by results not less tragical than that deed which had brought

about the expulsion of the Tarquins from the city and the throne

through the violation and death of Lucretia: so that the decemvirs not

only came to the same end as the kings, but the reason also of their

losing their power was the same. Appius Claudius was seized with a

criminal passion for violating the person of a young woman of plebeian

rank. Lucius Verginius, the girl's father, held an honourable

rank among the centurions at Algidum, a man who was a pattern of

uprightness both at home and in the service. His wife and children

were brought up in the same manner. He had betrothed his daughter to

Lucius Icilius, who had been tribune, a man of spirit and of approved

zeal in the interest of the people. Appius, burning with desire,

attempted to seduce by bribes and promises this young woman, now grown

up, and of distinguished beauty; and when he perceived that all the

avenues of his lust were barred by modesty, he turned his thoughts to

cruel and tyrannical violence. Considering that, as the girl's father

was absent, there was an opportunity for committing the wrong; he

instructed a dependent of his, Marcus Claudius, to claim the girl as

his slave, and not to yield to those who demanded her enjoyment of

liberty pending judgment. The tool of the decemvir's lust laid hands

on the girl as she was coming into the forum--for there the elementary

schools were held in booths--calling her the daughter of his slave and

a slave herself, and commanded her to follow him, declaring that he

would drag her off by force if she demurred. The girl being struck

dumb with terror, a crowd collected at the cries of her nurse, who

besought the protection of the citizens. The popular names of her

father, Verginius, and of her betrothed, Icilius, were in every one's

mouth. Esteem for them gained the good-will of their acquaintances,

the heinousness of the proceeding, that of the crowd. She was now

safe from violence, forasmuch as the claimant said that there was no

occasion for rousing the mob; that he was proceeding by law, not by

force. He summoned the girl into court. Her supporters advising her

to follow him, they reached the tribunal of Appius. The claimant

rehearsed the farce well known to the judge, as being in presence of

the actual author of the plot, that the girl, born in his house, and

clandestinely transferred from thence to the house of Verginius, had

been fathered on the latter: that what he stated was established

by certain evidence, and that he would prove it, even if Verginius

himself, who would be the principal sufferer, were judge: that

meanwhile it was only fair the servant should accompany her master.

The supporters of Verginia, after they had urged that Verginius was

absent on business of the state, that he would be present in two days

if word were sent to him, and that it was unfair that in his absence

he should run any risk regarding his children, demanded that Appius

should adjourn the whole matter till the arrival of the father; that

he should allow the claim for her liberty pending judgment according

to the law passed by himself, and not allow a maiden of ripe age to

encounter the risk of her reputation before that of her liberty.

Appius prefaced his decision by observing that the very same law,

which the friends of Verginius put forward as the plea of their

demand, showed how strongly he himself was in favour of liberty: that

liberty, however, would find secure protection in the law on this

condition only, that it varied neither with respect to cases or

persons. For with respect to those individuals who were claimed as

free, that point of law was good, because any citizen could proceed by

law in such a matter: but in the case of her who was in the hands of

her father, there was no other person in whose favour her master need

relinquish his right of possession.[51] That it was his decision,

therefore, that her father should be sent for: that, in the meantime,

the claimant should not be deprived of the right, which allowed him

to carry off the girl with him, at the same time promising that she

should be produced on the arrival of him who was called her father.

When there were many who murmured against the injustice of this

decision rather than any one individual who ventured to protest

against it, the girl's great-uncle, Publius Numitorius, and her

betrothed, Icilius, appeared on the scene: and, way being made for

them through the crowd, the multitude thinking that Appius could be

most effectually resisted by the intervention of Icilius, the lictor

declared that he had decided the matter, and attempted to remove

Icilius, when he began to raise his voice. Such a monstrous injustice

would have fired even a cool temper. "By the sword, Appius," said he,

"must I be removed hence, that you may secure silence about that which

you wish to be concealed. This young woman I am about to marry, to

have and to hold as my lawful wife. Wherefore call together all the

lictors of your colleagues also; order the rods and axes to be got

ready: the betrothed wife of Icilius shall not pass the night outside

her father's house. No: though you have taken from us the aid of our

tribunes, and the power of appeal to the commons of Rome, the two

bulwarks for the maintenance of our liberty, absolute authority has

not therefore been given to your lust over our wives and children.

Vent your fury on our backs and necks; let chastity at least be

secure. If violence shall be offered to her, I shall implore the

protection of the citizens here present on behalf of my betrothed,

Verginius that of the soldiers on behalf of his only daughter, all of

us the protection of gods and men, nor shall you carry that sentence

into effect without our blood. I demand of you, Appius, consider again

and again to what lengths you are proceeding. Verginius, when he

comes, will see to it, what conduct he is to pursue with respect to

his daughter: only let him be assured of this, that if he yields to

the claims of this man, he will have to look out for another match for

his daughter. As for my part, in vindicating the liberty of my spouse,

life shall leave me sooner than honour."

The multitude was now roused, and a contest seemed threatening. The

lictors had taken their stand around Icilius; they did not, however,

proceed beyond threats, while Appius said that it was not Verginia who

was being defended by Icilius, but that, being a restless man, and

even now breathing the spirit of the tribuneship, he was seeking an

opportunity for creating a disturbance. That he would not afford him

the chance of doing so on that day; but in order that he might now

know that the concession had been made not to his petulance, but to

the absent Verginius, to the name of father and to liberty, that he

would not decide the case on that day, nor introduce a decree: that he

would request Marcus Claudius to forego somewhat of his right, and to

suffer the girl to be bailed till the next day. However, unless the

father attended on the following day, he gave notice to Icilius and to

men like Icilius, that, as the framer of it, he would maintain his own

law, as a decemvir, his firmness: that he would certainly not assemble

the lictors of his colleagues to put down the promoters of sedition;

that he would be content with his own. When the time of this act

of injustice had been deferred, and the friends of the maiden had

retired, it was first of all determined that the brother of Icilius,

and the son of Numitorius, both active young men, should proceed

thence straight to the city gate, and that Verginius should be

summoned from the camp with all possible haste: that the safety of the

girl depended on his being present next day at the proper time, to

protect her from wrong. They proceeded according to directions, and

galloping at full speed, carried the news to her father. When the

claimant of the maiden was pressing Icilius to lay claim to her, and

give bail for her appearance, and Icilius said that that was the very

thing that was being done, purposely wasting the time, until the

messengers sent to the camp should finish their journey, the multitude

raised their hands on all sides, and every one showed himself ready

to go surety for Icilius. And he, with his eyes full of tears, said:

"This is a great favour; to-morrow I will avail myself of your

assistance: at present I have sufficient sureties." Thus Verginia was

bailed on the security of her relations. Appius, having delayed a

short time, that he might not appear to have sat on account of that

case alone, when no one made application to him, all other concerns

being set aside owing to the interest displayed in this one case,

betook himself home, and wrote to his colleague in the camp, not

to grant leave of absence to Verginius, and even to keep him in

confinement. This wicked scheme was too late, as it deserved: for

Verginius, having already obtained his leave had set out at the first

watch, while the letter regarding his detention was delivered on the

following morning without effect.

But in the city, at daybreak, when the citizens were standing in the

forum on the tiptoe of expectation, Verginius, clad in mourning,

conducted his daughter, also shabbily attired, attended by some

matrons, into the forum, with a considerable body of supporters. He

there began to go around and solicit people: and not only entreated

their aid given out of kindness, but demanded it as a right: saying

that he stood daily in the field of battle in defence of their wives

and children, nor was there any other man, whose brave and intrepid

deeds in war could be recorded in greater numbers. What availed it,

if, while the city was secure from dangers, their children had to

endure these calamities, which were the worst that could be dreaded if

it were taken? Uttering these words just like one delivering a public

harangue, he solicited the people individually. Similar arguments were

put forward by Icilius: the attendant throng of women produced more

effect by their silent tears than any words. With a mind stubbornly

proof against all this--such an attack of frenzy, rather than of love,

had perverted his mind--Appius ascended the tribunal, and when the

claimant went on to complain briefly, that justice had not been

administered to him on the preceding day through party influence,

before either he could go through with his claim, or an opportunity of

reply was afforded to Verginius, Appius interrupted him. The preamble

with which he prefaced his decision, ancient authors may have handed

down perhaps with some degree of truth; but since I nowhere find any

that is probable in the case of so scandalous a decision, I think it

best to state the bare fact, which is generally admitted, that he

passed a sentence consigning her to slavery. At first a feeling of

bewilderment astounded all, caused by amazement at so heinous a

proceeding: then for some time silence prevailed. Then, when Marcus

Claudius proceeded to seize the maiden, while the matrons stood

around, and was met by the piteous lamentations of the women,

Verginius, menacingly stretching forth his hands toward Appius, said:

"To Icilius, and not to you, Appius, have I betrothed my daughter, and

for matrimony, not for prostitution, have I brought her up. Would

you have men gratify their lust promiscuously, like cattle and wild

beasts? Whether these persons will endure such things, I know not; I

do not think that those will do so who have arms in their hands."

When the claimant of the girl was repulsed by the crowd of women and

supporters who were standing around her, silence was proclaimed by the

crier.

The decemvir, as if he had lost his reason owing to his passion,

stated that not only from Icilius's abusive harangue of the day

before, and the violence of Verginius, of which he could produce the

entire Roman people as witnesses, but from authentic information

also he had ascertained that secret meetings were held in the city

throughout the night with the object of stirring up sedition: that

he, accordingly, being aware of that danger, had come down with armed

soldiers, not to molest any peaceable person, but in order to punish,

as the majesty of the government demanded, those who disturbed the

tranquility of the state. "It will, therefore," said he, "be better to

remain quiet: go, lictor, disperse the crowd, and clear the way for

the master to lay hold of his slave." After he had thundered out these

words, full of wrath, the multitude of their own accord dispersed, and

the girl stood deserted, a sacrifice to injustice. Then Verginius,

when he saw no aid anywhere, said: "I beg you, Appius, first pardon a

father's grief, if I have attacked you too harshly: in the next place,

suffer me to ask the nurse here in presence of the maiden, what all

this means, that, if I have been falsely called her father, I may

depart hence with mind more tranquil." Permission having been granted,

he drew the girl and the nurse aside to the booths near the chapel

of Cloacina,[52] which now go by the name of the New Booths:[53] and

there, snatching a knife from a butcher, "In this, the only one way I

can, my daughter," said he, "do I secure to you your liberty." He

then plunged it into the girl's breast, and looking back toward the

tribunal, said "With this blood I devote thee,[54] Appius, and thy

head!" Appius, aroused by the cry raised at so dreadful a deed,

ordered Verginius to be seized. He, armed with the knife, cleared the

way whithersoever he went, until, protected by the crowd of persons

attending him, he reached the gate. Icilius and Numitorius took up the

lifeless body and showed it to the people; they deplored the villainy

of Appius, the fatal beauty of the maiden, and the cruel lot of the

father.[55] The matrons, following, cried out: Was this the condition

of rearing children? Were these the rewards of chastity? And other

things which female grief on such occasions suggests, when their

complaints are so much the more affecting, in proportion as their

grief is more intense from their want of self-control. The men, and

more especially Icilius, spoke of nothing but the tribunician power,

and the right of appeal to the people which had been taken from them,

and gave vent to their indignation in regard to the condition of

public affairs.

The multitude was excited partly by the heinousness of the misdeed,

partly by the hope of recovering their liberty on a favourable

opportunity. Appius first ordered Icilius to be summoned before

him, then, when he refused to come, to be seized: finally, when the

officers were not allowed an opportunity of approaching him, he

himself, proceeding through the crowd with a body of young patricians,

ordered him to be led away to prison. Now not only the multitude, but

Lucius Valerius and Marcus Horatius, the leaders of the multitude,

stood around Icilius and, having repulsed the lictor, declared, that,

if Appius should proceed according to law, they would protect Icilius

from one who was but a private citizen; if he should attempt to employ

force, that even in that case they would be no unequal match for him.

Hence arose a violent quarrel. The decemvir's lictor attacked Valerius

and Horatius: the fasces were broken by the people. Appius ascended

the tribunal; Horatius and Valerius followed him. They were

attentively listened to by the assembly: the voice of the decemvir was

drowned with clamour. Now Valerius, as if he possessed the authority

to do so, was ordering the lictors to depart from one who was but a

private citizen, when Appius, whose spirits were now broken, alarmed

for his life, betook himself into a house in the vicinity of the

forum, unobserved by his enemies, with his head covered up. Spurius

Oppius, in order to assist his colleague, rushed into the forum by the

opposite side: he saw their authority overpowered by force. Distracted

then by various counsels and by listening to several advisers from

every side, he had become hopelessly confused: eventually he ordered

the senate to be convened. Because the official acts of the decemvirs

seemed displeasing to the greater portion of the patricians, this

step quieted the people with the hope that the government would be

abolished through the senate. The senate was of opinion that the

commons should not be stirred up, and that much more effectual

measures should be taken lest the arrival of Verginius should cause

any commotion in the army.

Accordingly, some of the junior patricians, being sent to the camp

which was at that time on Mount Vecilius, announced to the decemvirs

that they should do their utmost to keep the soldiers from mutinying.

There Verginius occasioned greater commotion than he had left behind

him in the city. For besides that he was seen coming with a body

of nearly four hundred men, who, enraged in consequence of the

disgraceful nature of the occurrence, had accompanied him from the

city, the unsheathed knife, and his being himself besmeared with

blood, attracted to him the attention of the entire camp; and the

gowns,[56] seen in many parts of the camp had caused the number of

people from the city to appear much greater than it really was. When

they asked him what was the matter, in consequence of his weeping, for

a long time he did not utter a word. At length, as soon as the crowd

of those running together became quiet after the disturbance, and

silence ensued, he related everything in order as it had occurred.

Then extending his hands toward heaven, addressing his

fellow-soldiers, he begged of them, not to impute to him that which

was the crime of Appius Claudius, nor to abhor him as the murderer of

his child. To him the life of his daughter was dearer than his own, if

she had been allowed to live in freedom and chastity. When he beheld

her dragged to prostitution as if she were a slave, thinking it better

that his child should be lost by death rather than by dishonour,

through compassion for her he had apparently fallen into cruelty. Nor

would he have survived his daughter had he not entertained the hope of

avenging her death by the aid of his fellow-soldiers. For they too had

daughters, sisters, and wives; nor was the lust of Appius Claudius

extinguished with his daughter; but in proportion as it escaped with

greater impunity, so much the more unbridled would it be. That by the

calamity of another a warning was given to them to guard against a

similar injury. As far as he was concerned, his wife had been taken

from him by destiny; his daughter, because she could no longer have

lived as a chaste woman, had met with an unfortunate but honourable

death; that there was now no longer in his family an opportunity for

the lust of Appius; that from any other violence of his he would

defend his person with the same spirit with which he had vindicated

that of his daughter: that others should take care for themselves and

their children. While he uttered these words in a loud voice, the

multitude responded with a shout that they would not be backward,

either to avenge his wrongs or to defend their own liberty. And the

civilians mixing with the crowd of soldiers, by uttering the same

complaints, and by showing how much more shocking these things must

have appeared when seen than when merely heard of, and also by telling

them that the disturbance at Rome was now almost over--and others

having subsequently arrived who asserted that Appius, having with

difficulty escaped with life, had gone into exile--all these

individuals so far influenced them that there was a general cry to

arms, and having pulled up the standards, they set out for Rome. The

decemvirs, being alarmed at the same time both by what they now saw,

as well as by what they had heard had taken place at Rome, ran about

to different parts of the camp to quell the commotion. While they

proceeded with mildness no answer was returned to them: if any of them

attempted to exert authority, the soldiers replied that they were men

and were armed. They proceeded in a body to the city and occupied the

Aventine, encouraging the commons, as each person met them, recover

their liberty, and elect tribunes of the people; no other expression

of violence was heard. Spurius Oppius held a meeting of the senate;

it was resolved that no harsh measures should be adopted, inasmuch as

occasion for sedition had been given by themselves.[57] Three men of

consular rank, Spurius Tarpeius, Gaius Julius, Publius Sulpicius, were

sent as ambassadors, to inquire, in the name of the senate, by whose

order they had deserted the camp? Or what they meant by having

occupied the Aventine in arms, and, turning away their arms from the

enemy, having seized their own country? They were at no loss for an

answer: but they wanted some one to give the answer, there being as

yet no certain leader, and individuals were not bold enough to expose

themselves to the invidious office. The multitude only cried out with

one accord, that they should send Lucius Valerius and Marcus Horatius

to them, saying that they would give their answer to them.

The ambassadors being dismissed, Verginius reminded the soldiers that

a little while before they had been embarrassed in a matter of no very

great difficulty, because the multitude was without a head; and that

the answer given, though not inexpedient, was the result rather of an

accidental agreement than of a concerted plan. His opinion was, that

ten persons should be elected to preside over the management of state

affairs, and that they should be called tribunes of the soldiers, a

title suited to their military dignity. When that honour was offered

to himself in the first instance, he replied, "Reserve for an occasion

more favourable to both of us your kind recognition of me. The fact of

my daughter being unavenged, does not allow any office to be agreeable

to me, nor, in the present disturbed condition of the state, is it

advantageous that those should be at your head who are most exposed to

party animosity. If I am of any use, the benefit to be gained from my

services will be just as great while I am a private individual." They

accordingly elected military tribunes ten in number.

Meanwhile the army among the Sabines was not inactive. There also, at

the instance of Icilius and Numitorius, a secession from the decemvirs

took place, men's minds being no less moved when they recalled to mind

the murder of Siccius, than when they were fired with rage at the

recent account of the disgraceful attempt made on the maiden to

gratify lust. When Icilius heard that tribunes of the soldiers had

been elected on the Aventine, lest the election assembly in the city

should follow the precedent of the military assembly, by electing the

same persons tribunes of the commons, being well versed in popular

intrigues and having an eye to that office himself, he also took care,

before they proceeded to the city, that the same number should be

elected by his own party with equal power. They entered the city by

the Colline gate under their standards, and proceeded in a body to the

Aventine through the midst of the city. There, joining the other army,

they commissioned the twenty tribunes of the soldiers to select two

out of their number to preside over state affairs. They elected Marcus

Oppius and Sextus Manilius. The patricians, alarmed for the general

safety, though there was a meeting of the senate every day, wasted the

time in wrangling more frequently than in deliberation. The murder of

Siccius, the lust of Appius, and the disgraces incurred in war were

urged as charges against the decemvirs. It was resolved that Valerius

and Horatius should proceed to the Aventine. They refused to go on any

other condition than that the decemvirs should lay down the badges of

that office, which they had resigned at the end of the previous year.

The decemvirs, complaining that they were now being degraded, declared

that they would not resign their office until those laws, for the sake

of which they had been appointed, were passed.

The people being informed by Marcus Duillius, who had been tribune of

the people, that by reason of their continual contentions no business

was transacted, passed from the Aventine to the Sacred Mount, as

Duillius asserted that no concern for business would enter the minds

of the patricians, until they saw the city deserted: that the Sacred

Mount would remind them of the people's firmness: that they would then

know that matters could not be brought back to harmony without the

restoration of the tribunician power. Having set out along the

Nomentan way, which was then called the Ficulean,[58] they pitched

their camp on the Sacred Mount, imitating the moderation of their

fathers by committing no violence. The commons followed the army,

no one whose age would permit him declining to go. Their wives and

children attended them, piteously asking to whom they were leaving

them, in a city where neither chastity nor liberty were respected.

When the unusual solitude had created everywhere at Rome a feeling

of desolation; when there was no one in the forum but a few old men:

when, after the patricians had been summoned into the senate, the

forum appeared deserted, by this time more besides Horatius and

Valerius began to exclaim, "What will you now wait for, conscript

fathers? If the decemvirs do not put an end to their obstinacy, will

you suffer all things to go to wreck and ruin? What power is that of

yours, decemvirs, which you embrace and hold so firmly? Do you mean to

administer justice to walls and houses? Are you not ashamed that an

almost greater number of your lictors is to be seen in the forum than

of the other citizens? What are you going to do, in case the enemy

should approach the city? What, if the commons should come presently

in arms, in case we show ourselves little affected by their secession?

Do you mean to end your power by the fall of the city? Well, then,

either we must not have the commons, or they must have their tribunes.

We shall sooner be able to dispense with our patrician magistrates,

than they with their plebeian. That power, when new and untried,

they wrested from our fathers; much less will they now, when once

captivated by its charm, endure the loss of: more especially since we

do not behave with such moderation in the exercise of our power that

they are in no need of the aid of the tribunes." When these arguments

were thrown out from every quarter, the decemvirs, overpowered by the

united opinions of all, declared that, since such seemed to be the

feeling, they would submit to the authority of the patricians. All

they asked for themselves was that they might be protected from

popular odium; they warned the senate, that they should not, by

shedding their blood, habituate the people to inflict punishment on

the patricians.

Then Valerius and Horatius, having been sent to bring back the people

on such terms as might seem fit, and to adjust all differences, were

directed to make provision also to protect the decemvirs from the

resentment and violence of the multitude. They set forth and were

received into the camp amid the great joy of the people, as their

undoubted liberators, both at the beginning of the disturbance and

at the termination of the matter. In consideration of these things,

thanks were returned to them on their arrival. Icilius delivered

a speech in the name of the people. When the terms came to be

considered, on the ambassadors inquiring what the demands of the

people were, he also, having already concerted the plan before the

arrival of the ambassadors, made such demands, that it became evident

that more hope was placed in the justice of their case than in arms.

For they demanded the restoration of the tribunician office and the

right of appeal, which, before the appointment of decemvirs, had been

the supports of the people, and that it should be without detriment

to any one to have instigated the soldiers or the commons to seek to

recover their liberty by a secession. Concerning the punishment only

of the decemvirs was their demand immoderate: for they thought it but

just that they should be delivered up to them, and threatened to burn

them alive. The ambassadors replied: "Your demands which have been

the result of deliberation are so reasonable, that they should be

voluntarily offered to you: for you demand therein safeguards for

your liberty, not a means of arbitrary power to assail others. Your

resentment we must rather pardon than indulge, seeing that from your

hatred of cruelty you rush into cruelty, and almost before you are

free yourselves, already wish to lord it over your opponents. Shall

our state never enjoy rest from punishments, inflicted either by the

patricians on the Roman commons, or by the commons on the patricians?

You need a shield rather than a sword. He is sufficiently and

abundantly humbled who lives in the state on an equal footing with his

fellow-citizens, neither inflicting nor suffering injury. Should you,

however, at any time wish to render yourselves formidable, when, after

you have recovered your magistrates and laws, decisions on our

lives and fortunes shall be in your hands, then you shall determine

according to the merits of each case: for the present it is sufficient

that your liberty be recovered."

All assenting that they should act just as they thought proper, the

ambassadors assured them that they would speedily return, having

brought everything to a satisfactory termination. When they had gone

and laid before the patricians the message of the commons--while the

other decemvirs, since, contrary to their own expectation, no mention

was made of their punishment--raised no objection, Appius, being of a

truculent disposition and the chief object of detestation, measuring

the rancour of others toward him by his own toward them, said: "I am

not ignorant of the fate which threatens me. I see that the contest

against us is only deferred until our arms are delivered up to our

adversaries. Blood must be offered up to popular rage. I do not even

hesitate to resign my decemvirate." A decree of the senate was then

passed: that the decemvirs should as soon as possible resign their

office; that Quintus Furius, chief pontiff, should hold an election of

plebeian tribunes, and that the secession of the soldiers and commons

should not be detrimental to any one. These decrees of the senate

being completed, and the senate dismissed, the decemvirs came forth

into the assembly, and resigned their office, to the great joy of all.

News of this was carried to the commons. All those who remained in the

city escorted the ambassadors. This crowd was met by another joyous

body from the camp; they congratulated each other on the restoration

of liberty and concord to the state. The deputies spoke as follows

before the assembly: "Be it advantageous, fortunate, and happy for you

and the republic--return to your country, to your household gods, your

wives and children; but carry into the city the same moderation which

you observed here, where in spite of the pressing need of so many

things necessary for so large a number of persons, no man's field has

been injured. Go to the Aventine, whence you set out. There, in that

auspicious place, where you laid the first beginnings of your liberty,

you shall elect tribunes of the people. The chief pontiff will be at

hand to hold the elections." Great was their approval and joy, as

evinced in their assent to every measure. They then pulled up their

standards, and having set out for Rome, vied in exultation with all

they met. Silently, under arms, they marched through the city and

reached the Aventine. There, the chief pontiff holding the meeting

for the elections, they immediately elected as their tribunes of

the people, first of all Lucius Verginius, then Lucius Icilius, and

Publius Numitorius, the uncle of Verginius, who had recommended the

secession: then Gaius Sicinius, the offspring of him who is recorded

to have been elected first tribune of the commons on the Sacred Mount;

and Marcus Duillius, who had held a distinguished tribuneship before

the appointment of the decemvirs, and never failed the commons in

their contests with the decemvirs. Marcus Titinius, Marcus Pomponius,

Gaius Apronius, Appius Villius, and Gaius Oppius, were elected more

from hope entertained of them than from any actual services. When he

entered on his tribuneship, Lucius Icilius immediately brought before

the people, and the people enacted, that the secession from the

decemvirs which had taken place should not prove detrimental to any

individual. Immediately after Duillius carried a proposition for

electing consuls, with right of appeal[59]. All these things were

transacted in an assembly of the commons in the Flaminian meadows,

which are now called the Flaminian Circus.[60]

Then, through an interrex, Lucius Valerius and Marcus Horatius were

elected consuls, and immediately entered on their office; their

consulship, agreeable to the people, although it did no injury to

the patricians, was not, however, without giving them offence; for

whatever measures were taken to secure the liberty of the people, they

considered to be a diminution of their own power. First of all, when

it was as it were a disputed point of law, whether patricians were

bound by regulations enacted in an assembly of the commons, they

proposed a law in the assembly of the centuries, that whatever the

commons ordered in the assembly of the tribes, should be binding on

the entire people; by which law a most keen-edged weapon of offence

was given to the motions introduced by tribunes. Then another law made

by a consul concerning the right of appeal, a singularly effective

safeguard of liberty, that had been upset by the decemviral power,

was not only restored but also guarded for the time to come, by the

passing of a new law, that no one should appoint any magistrate

without appeal:[61] if any person should so appoint, it should be

lawful and right that he be put to death; and that such killing should

not be deemed a capital offence. And when they had sufficiently

secured the commons by the right of appeal on the one hand by

tribunician aid on the other, they revived for the tribunes themselves

the privilege that their persons should be considered inviolable--the

recollection of which was now almost forgotten--by renewing after a

long interval certain ceremonies which had fallen into disuse; and

they rendered them inviolable by religion, as well as by a law,

enacting that whosoever should offer injury to tribunes of the people,

ædiles, or judicial decemvirs, his person should be devoted to

Jupiter, and his property be sold at the Temple of Ceres, Liber, and

Libera. Expounders of the law deny that any person is by this law

inviolable, but assert that he, who may do an injury to any of them,

is deemed by law accursed: and that, accordingly, an ædile may be

arrested and carried to prison by superior magistrates, which, though

it be not expressly warranted by law (for an injury is done to a

person to whom it is not lawful to do an injury according to this

law), is yet a proof that an ædile is not considered as sacred and

inviolable; the tribunes, however, are sacred and inviolable according

to the ancient oath of the commons, when first they created that

office. There have been some who supposed that by this same Horatian

law provision was made for the consuls also and the prætors, because

they were elected under the same auspices as the consuls; for a consul

was called a judge. This interpretation is refuted, because at this

time it had not yet been customary for the consul to be styled judge,

but prætor.[62] These were the laws proposed by the consuls. It was

also arranged by the same consuls, that decrees of the senate, which

before that used to be suppressed and altered at the pleasure of the

consuls, should be deposited in the Temple of Ceres, under the care

of the aediles of the commons. Then Marcus Duillius, tribune of the

commons, brought before the people and the people enacted, that

whoever left the people without tribunes, and whoever caused a

magistrate to be elected without appeal, should be punished with

stripes and beheaded. All these enactments, though against the

feelings of the patricians, passed off without opposition from them,

because as yet no severity was aimed at any particular individual.

Then, both the tribunician power and the liberty of the commons having

been firmly established, the tribunes, now deeming it both safe and

seasonable to attack individuals, singled out Verginius as the first

prosecutor and Appius as defendant. When Verginius had appointed a day

for Appius to take his trial, and Appius had come down to the forum,

accompanied by a band of young patricians, the recollection of his

most profligate exercise of power was instantly revived in the minds

of all, as soon as they beheld the man himself and his satellites.

Then said Verginius: "Long speeches are only meant for matters of a

doubtful nature. Accordingly, I shall neither waste time in dwelling

on the guilt of this man before you, from whose cruelty you have

rescued yourselves by force of arms, nor will I suffer him to add

impudence to his other crimes in defending himself. Wherefore, Appius

Claudius, I pardon you for all the impious and nefarious deeds you

have had the effrontery to commit one after another for the last two

years; with respect to one charge only, unless you shall choose a

judge who shall acquit you that you have not sentenced a free person

to slavery, contrary to the laws, I shall order that you be taken into

custody." Neither in the aid of the tribunes, nor in the judgment of

the people, could Appius place any hope: still he both appealed to the

tribunes, and, when no one heeded him, being seized by the officer, he

exclaimed, "I appeal." The hearing of this one word that safeguard of

liberty, and the fact that it was uttered from that mouth, by which

a free citizen was so recently consigned to slavery, caused silence.

And, while they loudly declared, each on his own behalf, that at

length the existence of the gods was proved, and that they did not

disregard human affairs; and that punishments awaited tyranny and

cruelty, which punishments, though late, were, however, by no means

light; that that man now appealed, who had abolished all right of

appeal; and that he implored the protection of the people, who had

trampled under foot all the rights of the people: and that he was

being dragged off to prison, destitute of the rights of liberty, who

had doomed a free person to slavery, the voice of Appius himself was

heard, amid the murmurs of the assembly, imploring the protection of

the Roman people. He enumerated the services of his ancestors to

the state, at home and abroad: his own unfortunate anxiety for the

interests of the Roman commons, owing to which he had resigned the

consulship, to the very great displeasure of the patricians, for the

purpose of equalizing the laws; he then went on to mention those laws

of his, the framer of which was dragged off to prison, though the laws

still remained in force. However, in regard to what bore especially on

his own case, his personal merits and demerits, he would make trial

of them, when an opportunity should be afforded him of stating his

defence; at present, he, a Roman citizen, demanded, by the common

right of citizenship, that he be allowed to speak on the day

appointed, and to appeal to the judgment of the Roman people: he

did not dread popular odium so much as not to place any hope in the

fairness and compassion of his fellow-citizens. But if he were led to

prison without being heard, that he once more appealed to the tribunes

of the people, and warned them not to imitate those whom they hated.

But if the tribunes acknowledged themselves bound by the same

agreement for abolishing the right of appeal, which they charged the

decemvirs with having conspired to form, then he appealed to the

people, he implored the aid of the laws passed that very year, both by

the consuls and tribunes, regarding the right of appeal. For who

would there be to appeal, if this were not allowed a person as yet

uncondemned, whose case had not been heard? What plebeian or humble

individual would find protection in the laws, if Appius Claudius

could not? That he would be a proof whether tyranny or liberty was

established by the new laws, and whether the right of appeal and of

challenge against the injustice of magistrates was only held out in

idle words, or really granted.

Verginius, on the other hand, affirmed that Appius Claudius was the

only person who had no part or share in the laws, or in any covenant

civil or human. Men should look to the tribunal, the fortress of all

villainies, where that perpetual decemvir, venting his fury on the

property, person, and life of the citizens, threatening all with his

rods and axes, a despiser of gods and men, surrounded by men who were

executioners, not lictors, turning his thoughts from rapine and murder

to lust, tore a free-born maiden, as if she had been a prisoner of

war, from the embraces of her father, before the eyes of the Roman

people, and gave her as a present to a dependent, the minister to his

secret pleasures: where too by a cruel decree, and a most outrageous

decision, he armed the right hand of the father against the daughter:

where he ordered the betrothed and uncle, on their raising the

lifeless body of the girl, to be led away to prison, affected more by

the interruption of his lust than by her death: that the prison was

built for him also which he was wont to call the domicile of the Roman

commons. Wherefore, though he might appeal again and again, he himself

would again and again propose a judge, to try him on the charge of

having sentenced a free person to slavery; if he would not go before a

judge, he ordered him to be taken to prison as one already condemned.

He was thrown into prison, though without the disapprobation of any

individual, yet not without considerable emotion of the public mind,

since, in consequence of the punishment by itself of so distinguished

a man, their own liberty began to be considered by the commons

themselves as excessive.[63]

The tribunes adjourned the day of trial.

Meanwhile, ambassadors from the Hernicans and Latins came to Rome

to offer their congratulations on the harmony existing between the

patricians and commons, and as an offering on that account to Jupiter,

best and greatest, they brought into the Capitol a golden crown, of

small weight, as money at that time was not plentiful, and the duties

of religion were performed rather with piety than splendour. On the

same authority it was ascertained that the Aequans and Volscians were

preparing for war with the utmost energy. The consuls were therefore

ordered to divide the provinces between them. The Sabines fell to the

lot of Horatius, the Æquans to Valerius. After they had proclaimed a

levy for these wars, through the good offices of the commons, not only

the younger men, but a large number, consisting of volunteers from

among those who had served their time,[64] attended to give in their

names: and hence the army was stronger not only in the number but also

in the quality of its soldiers, owing to the admixture of veterans.

Before they marched out of the city, they engraved on brass, and fixed

up in public view, the decemviral laws, which are named "the twelve

tables." There are some who state that the aediles discharged that

office by order of the tribunes.

Gaius Claudius, who, detesting the crimes of the decemvirs and, above

all, incensed at the arrogant conduct of his brother-in-law, had

retired to Regillum, his ancestral home. Though advanced in years, he

now returned to the City, to deprecate the dangers threatening the man

whose vicious practices had driven him into retirement. Going down to

the Forum in mourning garb, accompanied by the members of his house

and by his clients, he appealed to the citizens individually, and

implored them not to stain the house of the Claudii with such an

indelible disgrace as to deem them worthy of bonds and imprisonment.

To think that a man whose image would be held in highest honour

by posterity, the framer of their laws and the founder of Roman

jurisprudence, should be lying manacled amongst nocturnal thieves and

robbers! Let them turn their thoughts for a moment from feelings of

exasperation to calm examination and reflection, and forgive one man

at the intercession of so many of the Claudii, rather than through

their hatred of one man despise the prayers of many. So far he himself

would go for the honour of his family and his name, but he was not

reconciled to the man whose distressed condition he was anxious to

relieve. By courage their liberties had been recovered, by clemency

the harmony of the orders in the State could be strengthened. Some

were moved, but it was more by the affection he showed for his nephew

than by any regard for the man for whom he was pleading. But Verginius

begged them with tears to keep their compassion for him and his

daughter, and not to listen to the prayers of the Claudii, who had

assumed sovereign power over the plebs, but to the three tribunes,

kinsmen of Verginia, who, after being elected to protect the

plebeians, were now seeking their protection. This appeal was felt to

have more justice in it. All hope being now cut off, Appius put an end

to his life before the day of trial came.

Soon after Sp. Oppius was arraigned by P. Numitorius. He was only

less detested than Appius, because he had been in the City when his

colleague pronounced the iniquitous judgment. More indignation,

however, was aroused by an atrocity which Oppius had committed than

by his not having prevented one. A witness was produced, who after

reckoning up twenty-seven years of service, and eight occasions on

which he had been decorated for conspicuous bravery, appeared before

the people wearing all his decorations. Tearing open his dress he

exhibited his back lacerated with stripes. He asked for nothing but a

proof on Oppius' part of any single charge against him; if such proof

were forthcoming, Oppius, though now only a private citizen, might

repeat all his cruelty towards him. Oppius was taken to prison and

there, before the day of trial, he put an end to his life. His

property and that of Claudius were confiscated by the tribunes. Their

colleagues changed their domicile by going into exile; their property

also was confiscated. M. Claudius, who had been the claimant of

Verginia, was tried and condemned; Verginius himself, however, refused

to press for the extreme penalty, so he was allowed to go into exile

to Tibur. Verginia was more fortunate after her death than in her

lifetime; her shade, after wandering through so many houses in quest

of expiatory penalties, at length found rest, not one guilty person

being now left.

Great alarm seized the patricians; the looks of the tribunes were

now as menacing as those of the decemvirs had been. M. Duillius the

tribune imposed a salutary check upon their excessive exercise of

authority. "We have gone," he said, "far enough in the assertion of

our liberty and the punishment of our opponents, so for this year

I will allow no man to be brought to trial or cast into prison. I

disapprove of old crimes, long forgotten, being raked up, now that the

recent ones have been atoned for by the punishment of the decemvirs.

The unceasing care which both the consuls are taking to protect your

liberties is a guarantee that nothing will be done which will call for

the power of the tribunes." This spirit of moderation shown by the

tribune relieved the fears of the patricians, but it also intensified

their resentment against the consuls, for they seemed to be so wholly

devoted to the plebs, that the safety and liberty of the patricians

were a matter of more immediate concern to the plebeian than they were

to the patrician magistrates. It seemed as though their adversaries

would grow weary of inflicting punishment on them sooner than the

consuls would curb their insolence. It was pretty generally asserted

that they had shown weakness, since their laws had been sanctioned by

the senate, and no doubt was entertained that they had yielded to the

pressure of circumstances.

After matters had been settled in the City and the position of the

plebs firmly assured, the consuls left for their respective provinces.

Valerius wisely suspended operations against the armies of the Aequans

and the Volscians, which had now united at Algidum: whereas, if he had

immediately intrusted the issue to fortune, I am inclined to think

that, considering the feelings both of the Romans and of their enemies

at that time, after the unfavourable auspices of the decemvirs,[65]

the contest would have cost him heavy loss. Having pitched his camp

at the distance of a mile from the enemy, he kept his men quiet. The

enemy filled the space lying between the two camps with their army

in order of battle, and not a single Roman made answer when they

challenged them to fight. At length, wearied with standing and waiting

in vain for a contest, the Aequans and Volscians, considering that the

victory was almost yielded to them, went off some to Hernican, others

to Latin territory, to commit depredations. There was left in the camp

rather a garrison for its defence than sufficient force for a contest.

When the consul perceived this, he in turn inspired the terror which

his own men had previously felt, and having drawn up his troops in

order of battle on his side, provoked the enemy to fight. When they,

conscious of their lack of forces, declined battle, the courage of the

Romans immediately increased, and they considered them vanquished,

as they stood panic-stricken within their rampart. Having stood

throughout the day eager for the contest, they retired at night. And

the Romans, now full of hope, set about refreshing themselves. The

enemy, in by no means equal spirits, being now anxious, despatched

messengers in every direction to recall the plundering parties.

Those in the nearest places returned: those who were farther off were

not found. When day dawned, the Romans left the camp, determined on

assaulting the rampart, unless an opportunity of fighting presented

itself; and when the day was now far advanced, and no movement was

made by the enemy, the consul ordered an advance; and the troops being

put in motion, the Aequans and Volscians were seized with indignation,

at the thought that victorious armies had to be defended by a rampart

rather than by valour and arms. Wherefore they also earnestly demanded

the signal for battle from their generals, and received it. And now

half of them had got out of the gates, and the others in succession

were marching in order, as they went down each to his own post, when

the Roman consul, before the enemy's line, supported by their entire

strength, could get into close order, advanced upon them; and having

attacked them before they were all as yet led forth, and before those,

who were, had their lines properly drawn out, he fell upon them,

a crowd almost beginning to waver, as they ran from one place to

another, and gazed around upon themselves, and looked eagerly for

their friends, the shouts and violent attack adding to the already

panic-stricken condition of their minds. The enemy at first gave way;

then, having rallied their spirits, when their generals on every side

reproachfully asked them, whether they intended to yield to vanquished

foes, the battle was restored.

On the other side, the consul desired the Romans to remember that on

that day, for the first time, they fought as free men in defence of

Rome, now a free city. That it was for themselves they were about to

conquer, not to become, when victorious, the prize of the decemvirs.

That it was not under the command of Appius that operations were

being conducted, but under their consul Valerius, descended from the

liberators of the Roman people, himself their liberator. Let them show

that in former battles it had been the fault of the generals and not

of the soldiers, that they did not conquer. That it was shameful to

have exhibited more courage against their own countrymen than against

their enemies, and to have dreaded slavery more at home than abroad.

That Verginia was the only person whose chastity had been in danger

in time of peace; that Appius had been the only citizen of dangerous

lust. But if the fortune of war should turn against them, the children

of all would be in danger from so many thousands of enemies; that he

was unwilling to forebode what neither Jupiter nor their father Mars

would be likely to suffer to befall a city built under such auspices.

He reminded them of the Aventine and the Sacred Mount; that they

should bring back dominion unimpaired to that spot, where their

liberty had been won but a few months before; and that they should

show that the Roman soldiers retained the same disposition after the

expulsion of the decemvirs, as they had possessed before they

were appointed, and that the valour of the Roman people had not

deteriorated after the laws had been equalized. After he uttered these

words among the battalions of the infantry, he hurried from them to

the cavalry. "Come, young men," said he, "show yourselves superior to

the infantry in valour, as you already are their superiors in honour

and in rank. The infantry at the first onset have made the enemy give

way; now that they have given way, do you give reins to your horses

and drive them from the field. They will not stand your charge; even

now they rather hesitate than resist." They spurred on their horses,

and charged at full speed against the enemy, who were already thrown

into confusion by the attack of the infantry: and having broken

through the ranks, some dashing on to the rear of their line, others

wheeling about in the open space from the flanks, turned most of them

away from the camp as they were now flying in all directions, and by

riding beyond them headed them off. The line of infantry, the consul

himself, and the whole onset of the battle was borne toward the camp,

and having taken it with considerable slaughter, he got possession of

still more considerable booty. The fame of this battle, carried not

only to the city, but to the other army also in Sabine territory, was

welcomed in the city with public rejoicing; in the camp, it inspirited

the soldiers to emulate such glory. Horatius, by training them in

sallies, and making trial of them in slight skirmishes, had accustomed

them to trust in themselves rather than remember the ignominy incurred

under the command of the decemvirs, and these trifling engagements had

greatly contributed to the successful consummation of their hopes. The

Sabines, elated at their success in the preceding year, ceased not

to provoke and urge them to fight, constantly asking why they wasted

time, sallying forth in small numbers and returning like marauders,

and why they distributed the issue of a single war over a number of

engagements, and those of no importance. Why did they not meet them in

the field, and intrust to fortune the decision of the matter once and

for all?

Besides that they had already of themselves recovered sufficient

courage, the Romans were fired with exasperation at the thought that

the other army would soon return victorious to the city; that the

enemy were now wantonly affronting them with insolence: when,

moreover, would they be a match for the enemy, if they were not so

then? When the consul ascertained that the soldiers loudly expressed

these sentiments in the camp, having summoned an assembly, he spoke

as follows: "How matters have fared in Algidum, I suppose that you,

soldiers, have already heard. As became the army of the free people

to behave, so have they behaved; through the good judgment of my

colleague and the valour of the soldiers, the victory has been gained.

For my part, I shall display the same judgment and determination as

you yourselves, O soldiers, display. The war may either be prolonged

with advantage, or be brought to a speedy conclusion. If it is to be

prolonged, I shall take care, by employing the same method of warfare

with which I have begun, that your hopes and your valour may increase

every day. If you have now sufficient courage, and it is your wish

that the matter be decided, come, raise here a shout such as you will

raise in the field of battle, in token both of your wishes and your

valour." Whenthe shout was raised with great alacrity, he assured them

that he would comply with their wishes--and so might Heaven prosper

it--and lead them next day into the field. The remainder of the day

was spent in getting ready their arms. On the following day, as soon

as the Sabines saw the Roman army being drawn up in order of battle,

they too, having long since been eager for the encounter, advanced.

The battle was one such as would be fought between two armies who both

had confidence in themselves, the one on account of its long-standing

and unbroken career of glory, the other recently elated by its unusual

success. The Sabines aided their strength also by stratagem; for,

having formed a line equal to that of the Romans, they kept two

thousand men in reserve, to make an attack on the left wing of the

Romans in the heat of the battle. When these, by an attack in flank,

were on the point of overpowering that wing, now almost surrounded,

about six hundred of the cavalry of two legions leaped down from their

horses, and, as their men were giving way, rushed forward in front,

and at the same time both opposed the advance of the enemy, and roused

the courage of the infantry, first by sharing the danger equally with

them, and then by arousing in them a sense of shame. It was a matter

of shame that the cavalry should fight in their own proper fashion and

in that of others, and that the infantry should not be equal to the

cavalry even when dismounted.[66]

They marched therefore to the fight, which had been suspended on their

part, and endeavoured to regain the ground which they had lost, and in

a moment not only was the battle restored, but one of the wings of

the Sabines gave way. The cavalry, protected between the ranks of the

infantry, remounted their horses; they then galloped across to the

other division to announce their success to their party; at the same

time also they charged the enemy, now disheartened by the discomfiture

of their stronger wing. The valour of none shone forth more

conspicuous in that battle. The consul provided for all emergencies;

he applauded the brave, rebuked wherever the battle seemed to slacken.

When reproved, they displayed immediately the deeds of brave men; and

a sense of shame stimulated these, as much as praises the others. The

shout being raised anew, all together making a united effort, drove

the enemy back; nor could the Roman attack be any longer resisted.

The Sabines, driven in every direction through the country, left their

camp behind them for the enemy to plunder. There the Romans recovered

the effects, not of the allies, as at Algidum, but their own property,

which had been lost by the devastations of their lands. For this

double victory, gained in two battles, in two different places, the

senate in a niggardly spirit merely decreed thanksgivings in the name

of the consuls for one day only. The people went, however, on the

second day also, in great numbers of their own accord to offer

thanksgiving; and this unauthorized and popular thanksgiving, owing to

their zeal, was even better attended. The consuls by agreement came

to the city within the same two days, and summoned the senate to

the Campius Martius.[67] When they were there relating the services

performed by themselves, the chiefs of the patricians complained that

the senate was designedly convened among the soldiers for the purpose

of intimidation. The consuls, therefore, that there might be no room

for such a charge, called away the senate to the Flaminian meadows,

where the Temple of Apollo now is (even then it was called the

Apollinare). There, when a triumph was refused by a large majority

of the patricians, Lucius Icilius, tribune of the commons, brought a

proposition before the people regarding the triumph of the consuls,

many persons coming forward to argue against the measure, but in

particular Gaius Claudius, who exclaimed, that it was over the senate,

not over the enemy, that the consuls wished to triumph; and that it

was intended as a return for a private service to a tribune, and not

as an honour due to valour. That never before had the matter of a

triumph been managed through the people; but that the consideration of

that honour and the disposal of it, had always rested with the senate;

that not even the kings had infringed on the majesty of this most

august body. The tribunes should not so occupy every department with

their own authority, as to allow the existence of no public council;

that the state would be free, and the laws equalized by these means

only, if each order retained its own rights and its own dignity. After

much had been said by the other senior patricians also to the same

purpose, all the tribes approved the proposition. Then for the first

time a triumph was celebrated by order of the people, without the

authority of the senate.

This victory of the tribunes and people was well-nigh terminating in

an extravagance by no means salutary, a conspiracy being formed among

the tribunes that the same tribunes might be re-elected, and, in

order that their own ambition might be the less conspicuous, that

the consuls also might have their office prolonged. They pleaded, in

excuse, the combination of the patricians by which the privileges of

the commons were attempted to be undermined by the affronts of the

consuls. What would be the consequence, when the laws were as yet not

firmly established, if they attacked the new tribunes through consuls

of their own party? Men like Horatius and Valerius would not always be

consuls, who would regard their own interests as secondary after the

liberty of the people. By some concurrence of circumstances, useful in

view of the situation, it fell by lot to Marcus Duillius before

all others to preside at the elections, a man of prudence, and who

perceived the storm of public odium that was hanging over them from

the continuance of their office. And when he declared that he would

take no account of any of the former tribunes, and his colleagues

struggled to get him to allow the tribes to vote independently, or to

give up the office of presiding at the elections, which he held by

lot, to his colleagues, who would hold the elections according to law

rather than according to the pleasure of the patricians; a contention

being now excited, when Duillius had sent for the consuls to his

seat and asked them what they contemplated doing with respect to the

consular elections, and they answered that they would appoint new

consuls; then, having secured popular supporters of a measure by no

means popular, he proceeded with them into the assembly. There the

consuls were brought forward before the people, and asked what they

would do if the Roman people mindful of their liberty recovered at

home through them, mindful also of their services in war, should again

elect them consuls: and when they in no way changed their opinions,

he held the election, after eulogizing the consuls, because they

persevered to the last in being unlike the decemvirs; and five

tribunes of the people having been elected, when, through the zealous

exertions of the nine tribunes who openly pressed their canvass, the

other candidates could not make up the required number of tribes, he

dismissed the assembly; nor did he hold one afterward for the purpose

of an election. He said that the law had been satisfied, which,

without any number being anywhere specified, only enacted that

tribunes who had been elected should be left to choose their

colleagues and confirmed those chosen by them. He then went on to

recite the formula of the law, in which it was laid down: "If I shall

propose for election ten tribunes of the commons, if from any cause

you shall elect this day less than ten tribunes of the people, then

that those whom they may have chosen as colleagues for themselves,

that these, I say, be legitimate tribunes of the people on the same

conditions as those whom you shall on this day have elected tribunes

of the people." When Duillius persevered to the last, stating that the

republic could not have fifteen tribunes of the people, having baffled

the ambition of his colleagues, he resigned office, equally approved

of by patricians and commons.

The new tribunes of the people, in electing their colleagues

endeavoured to gratify the wishes of the patricians; they even elected

two who were patricians,[68] and men of consular rank Spurius Tarpeius

and Aulus Aternius. The consuls elected, Spurius Herminius, Titus

Verginius Cælimontanus, not being specially inclined to the cause

either of the patricians or commons, had perfect tranquillity both at

home and abroad. Lucius Trebonius, tribune of the commons, incensed

against the patricians, because, as he said, he had been imposed on

by them in the matter of choosing tribunes, and betrayed by his

colleagues, brought forward a proposal, that whoever proposed he

election of tribunes of the people before the commons, should go on

taking the votes, until he elected ten tribunes of the people; and he

spent his tribuneship in worrying the patricians, whence the surname

of Asper was given him. Next Marcus Geganius Macerinus, and Gaius

Julius, being elected consuls, quieted some disputes that had arisen

between the tribunes and the youth of the nobility, without displaying

any harshness against that power, and at the same time preserving the

dignity of the patricians. By proclaiming a levy for the war against

the Volscians and Æquans, they kept the people from riots by keeping

matters in abeyance, affirming that everything was also quiet abroad,

owing to the harmony in the city, and that it was only through civil

discord that foreign foes took courage. Their anxiety for peace abroad

was also the cause of harmony at home. But notwithstanding, the one

order ever attacked the moderation of the other. Acts of injustice

began to be committed by the younger patricians on the commons,

although the latter kept perfectly quiet. Where the tribunes assisted

the more humble, in the first place it accomplished little: and

thereafter they did not even themselves escape ill-treatment:

particularly in the latter months, when injustice was committed

through the combinations among the more powerful, and the power of the

office became considerably weaker in the latter part of the year. And

now the commons placed some hopes in the tribuneship, if only they

could get tribunes like Icilius: for the last two years they declared

that they had only had mere names. On the other hand, the elder

members of the patrician order, though they considered their young men

to be too overbearing, yet preferred, if bounds were to be exceeded,

that a superabundance of spirit should be exhibited by their own order

rather than by their adversaries. So difficult a thing is moderation

in maintaining liberty, while every one, by pretending to desire

equality, exalts himself in such a manner as to put down another,

and men, by their very precautions against fear, cause themselves to

become objects of dread: and we saddle on others injustice repudiated

on our own account, as if it were absolutely necessary either to

commit injustice or to submit to it. Titus Quinctius Capitolinus for

the fourth time and Agrippa Furius being then elected consuls, found

neither disturbance at home nor war abroad; both, however, were

impending. The discord of the citizens could now no longer be checked,

both tribunes and commons being exasperated against the patricians,

while, if a day of trial was appointed for any of the nobility, it

always embroiled the assemblies in new struggles. On the first report

of these the Æquans and Volscians, as if they had received a signal,

took up arms; also because their leaders, eager for plunder, had

persuaded them that the levy proclaimed two years previously could not

be proceeded with, as the commons now refused obedience to military

authority: that for that reason no armies had been sent against them;

that military discipline was subverted by licentiousness, and that

Rome was no longer considered a common country for its citizens; that

whatever resentment and animosity they might have entertained

against foreigners, was now directed against themselves; that now an

opportunity offered itself for destroying wolves blinded by intestine

rage. Having united their forces, they first utterly laid waste the

Latin territory: when none met them to avenge the wrong, then indeed,

to the great exultation of the advisers of the war, they approached

the very walls of Rome, carrying their depredations into the district

around the Esquiline gate[69] pointing out to the city in mocking

insult the devastation of the land. When they marched back thence to

Corbio unmolested and driving their booty before them, Quinctius the

consul summoned the people to an assembly.

There I find that he spoke to this effect: "Though I am conscious to

myself of no fault, Quirites, yet it is with the greatest shame I have

come forward to your assembly. To think that you should know this,

that this should be handed down on record to posterity, that the

Æquans and Volscians a short time since scarcely a match for the

Hernicans, have with impunity come with arms in their hands to the

walls of Rome, in the fourth consulate of Titus Quinctius! Had I known

that this disgrace was reserved for this year, above all others,

though we have now long been living in such a manner, and such is the

state of affairs, that my mind can forebode nothing good, I would have

avoided this honour either by exile or by death, if there had been no

other means of escaping it. Then, if men of courage had held those

arms, which were at our gates, Rome could have been taken during my

consulate. I have had sufficient honours, enough and more than enough

of life: I ought to have died in my third consulate. Whom, I pray, did

these most dastardly enemies despise? Us, consuls, or you, Quirites?

If the fault lies in us, take away the command from those who are

unworthy of it; and, if that is not enough, further inflict punishment

on us. If the fault is yours, may there be none of gods or men to

punish your offences: do you yourselves only repent of them. It is not

your cowardice they have despised, nor their own valour that they have

put their trust in: having been so often routed and put to flight,

stripped of their camp, mulcted in their land, sent under the yoke,

they know both themselves and you. It is the discord among the several

orders that is the curse of this city, the contests between the

patricians and commons. While we have neither bounds in the pursuit of

power, nor you in that of liberty, while you are wearied of patrician,

we of plebeian magistrates, they have taken courage. In the name of

Heaven, what would you have? You desired tribunes of the commons; we

granted them for the sake of concord. You longed for decemvirs;

we suffered them to be created. You became weary of decemvirs; we

compelled them to resign office. Your resentment against these same

persons when they became private citizens still continuing, we

suffered men of the highest family and rank to die or go into exile.

You wished asecond time to create tribunes of the commons; you created

them. You wished to elect consuls attached to your party; and,

although we saw that it was unjust to the patricians, we have even

resigned ourselves to see a patrician magistracy conceded as an

offering to the people. The aid of tribunes, right of appeal to the

people, the acts of the commons made binding on the patricians under

the pretext of equalizing the laws, the subversion of our privileges,

we have endured and still endure. What end is there to be to our

dissensions? When shall it be allowed us to have a united city, one

common country? We, when defeated, submit with greater resignation

than you when victorious. Is it enough for you, that you are objects

of terror to us? The Aventine is taken against us: against us the

Sacred Mount is seized. When the Esquiline was almost taken by the

enemy, no one defended it, and when the Volscian foe was scaling the

rampart, no one drove him off: it is against us you behave like men,

against us you are armed.

"Come, when you have blockaded the senate-house here, and have made

the forum the seat of war, and filled the prison with the leading men

of the state, march forth through the Esquiline gate, with that same

determined spirit; or, if you do not even venture thus far, behold

from your walls your lands laid waste with fire and sword, booty

driven off, houses set on fire in every direction and smoking. But, I

may be told, it is only the public weal that is in a worse condition

through this: the land is burned, the city is besieged, the glory of

the war rests with the enemy. What in the name of Heaven--what is the

state of your own private affairs? Even now to each of you his own

private losses from the country will be announced. What, pray, is

there at home, whence you can recruit them? Will the tribunes restore

and re-establish what you have lost? Of sound and words they will heap

on you as much as you please, and of charges against the leading men,

laws one after another, and public meetings. But from these meetings

never has one of you returned home more increased in substance or in

fortune. Has any one ever brought back to his wife and children aught

save hatred, quarrels, grudges public and private, from which you may

ever be protected, not by your own valour and integrity, but by the

aid of others? But, by Hercules! When you served under the command of

us consuls, not under tribunes, in the camp and not in the forum, and

the enemy trembled at your shout in the field of battle, not the Roman

patricians in the assembly, having gained booty and taken land from

the enemy, loaded with wealth and glory, both public and private, you

used to return home in triumph to your household gods: now you allow

the enemy to go off laden with your property. Continue fast bound to

your assemblies, live in the forum; the necessity of taking the field,

which you strive to escape, still follows you. It was hard on you to

march against the Æquans and the Volscians: the war is at your gates:

if it is not driven from thence, it will soon be within your walls,

and will scale the citadel and Capitol, and follow you into your very

houses. Two years ago the senate ordered a levy to be held, and an

army to be marched out to Algidum; yet we sit down listless at home,

quarrelling with each other like women, delighting in present peace,

and not seeing that after that short-lived inactivity war will return

with interest. That there are other topics more pleasing than these,

I well know; but even though my own mind did not prompt me to it,

necessity obliges me to speak the truth rather than what is pleasing.

I would indeed like to meet with your approval, Quirites; but I am

much more anxious that you should be preserved, whatever sentiments

you shall entertain toward me. It has been so ordained by nature, that

he who addresses a crowd for his own private interest, is more welcome

than the man whose mind has nothing in view but the public interest

unless perhaps you suppose that those public sycophants those

flatterers of the commons, who neither suffer you to take up arms nor

to live in peace, excite and work you up for your own interests. When

excited, you are to them sources either of position or of profit: and,

because, when the orders are in accord, they see that they themselves

are of no importance in anything, they prefer to be leaders of a bad

cause, of tumults and sedition, rather than of no cause at all. If

you can at last become wearied of all this, and if you are willing to

resume the habits practised by your forefathers of old, and formerly

by yourselves, in place of these new ones, I am ready to submit to

any punishment, if I do not in a few days rout and put to flight, and

strip of their camp those devastators of our lands, and transfer from

our gates and walls to their cities this terror of war, by which you

are now thrown into consternation."

Scarcely ever was the speech of a popular tribune more acceptable to

the commons than this of a most austere consul on that occasion. The

young men also, who, during such alarms, had been accustomed to employ

the refusal to enlist as the sharpest weapon against the patricians,

began to turn their attention to war and arms: and the flight of the

rustics, and those who had been robbed and wounded in the country, by

announcing events more revolting even than what was before their eyes,

filled the whole city with exasperation. When they came into the

senate, there all, turning to Quinctius, looked upon him as the only

champion of the majesty of Rome: and the leading senators declared

that his harangue was worthy of the consular authority, worthy of so

many consulships formerly borne by him, worthy of his whole life, full

of honours frequently enjoyed, more frequently deserved. That other

consuls had either flattered the commons by betraying the dignity of

the patricians, or by harshly maintaining the rights of their order,

had rendered the multitude more exasperated by their efforts to subdue

them: that Titus Quinctius had delivered a speech mindful of the

dignity of the patricians, of the concord of the different orders,

and above all, of the needs of the times. They entreated him and his

colleague to assume the management of the commonwealth; they entreated

the tribunes, by acting in concert with the consuls, to join in

driving back the war from the city and the walls, and to induce the

commons to be obedient to the senate at so perilous a conjuncture:

declaring that, their lands being devastated, and their city in a

manner besieged, their common country appealed to them as tribunes,

and implored their aid. By universal consent the levy was decreed and

held. When the consuls gave public notice that there was no time for

considering claims for exemption; that all the young men should attend

on the following morning at dawn in the Campus Martius; that when the

war was over, they would afford time for inquiring into the excuses of

those who had not given in their names; that the man should be held

as a deserter, whose excuse they found unsatisfactory; all the youth

attended on the following day. The cohorts [70] chose each their

centurions: two senators were placed at the head of each cohort.

We have read that all these measures were carried out with such

expedition that the standards, which had been brought forth from the

treasury on that very day by the quæstors and conveyed to the Campus,

started from thence at the fourth hour; and the newly-raised army

halted at the tenth milestone, followed only by a few cohorts of

veteran soldiers as volunteers. The following day brought the enemy

within sight, and camp was joined to camp near Corbio. On the third

day, when resentment urged on the Romans, and a consciousness of guilt

for having so often rebelled and a feeling of despair, the others,

there was no delay in coming to an engagement.

In the Roman army, though the two consuls were invested with equal

authority, the supreme command was, by the concession of Agrippa,

resigned to his colleague, an arrangement most salutary in the conduct

of matters of great importance; and he who was preferred made a polite

return for the ready condescension of the other, who thus lowered

himself, by making him his confidant in all his plans and sharing with

him his honours, and by putting him on an equality with him although

he was by no means as capable. On the field of battle Quinctius

commanded the right, Agrippa the left wing; the command of the centre

was intrusted to Spurius Postumius Albus, as lieutenant-general.

Publius Sulpicius, the other lieutenant-general, was placed at the

head of the cavalry. The infantry on the right wing fought with

distinguished valour, while the Volscians offered a stout resistance.

Publius Sulpicius with his cavalry broke through the centre of the

enemy's line; and, though he might have returned thence in the same

way to his own party, before the enemy restored their broken ranks,

it seemed more advisable to attack them in the rear, and in a moment,

charging the line in the rear, he would have dispersed the enemy by

the double attack, had not the cavalry of the Volscians and Æquans

kept him for some time engaged by a mode of fighting like his own.

Then indeed Sulpicius declared that there was no time for delay,

crying out that they were surrounded and would be cut off from their

own friends, unless they united all their efforts and despatched the

engagement with the cavalry. Nor was it enough to rout the enemy

without disabling them; they must slay horses and men, that none might

return to the fight or renew the battle; that these could not resist

them, before whom a compact body of infantry had given way. His orders

were addressed to no deaf ears; by a single charge they routed the

entire cavalry, dismounted great numbers, and killed with their

javelins both the riders and the horses. Thus ended the cavalry

engagement. Then, having attacked the enemy's infantry, they sent an

account to the consuls of what had been done, where the enemy's line

was already giving way. The news both gave fresh courage to the

Romans who were now gaining the day, and dismayed the Æquans who were

beginning to give way. They first began to be beaten in the centre,

where the furious charge of the cavalry had broken their ranks. Then

the left wing began to lose ground before the consul Quinctius; the

contest was most obstinate on the right. Then Agrippa, in the vigour

of his youth and strength, seeing matters going more favourably in

every part of the battle than in his own quarter, snatched some of the

standards from the standard-bearers and carried them on himself, some

even he began to throw into the thick of the enemy.[71]

The soldiers, urged on by the fear of this disgrace, attacked the

enemy; thus the victory was equalized in every quarter. News then came

from Quinctius that he, being now victorious, was about to attack

the enemy's camp; that he was unwilling to break into it, before he

learned that they were beaten in the left wing also. If he had routed

the enemy, let him now join him, that all the army together might

take possession of the booty. Agrippa, being victorious, with mutual

congratulations advanced toward his victorious colleague and the

enemy's camp. There, as there were but few to defend it, and these

were routed in a moment they broke into the fortifications without a

struggle, and marched back the army, in possession of abundant spoil,

having recovered also their own effects, which had been lost by the

devastation of the lands. I have not heard that they either themselves

demanded a triumph, or that one was offered to them by the senate; nor

is any cause assigned for the honour being either overlooked or not

hoped for. As far as I can conjecture at so great a distance of time,

since a triumph had been refused to the consuls Horatius and Valerius,

who, in addition to the victory over the Æquans and Volscians, had

gained the glory of having also finished the Sabine war, the consuls

were ashamed to demand a triumph for one half of the services done by

them, lest, even if they should have obtained it, regard might appear

to have been paid to persons rather than to merit.

A disgraceful decision of the people regarding the boundaries of their

allies marred the honourable victory obtained over their enemies. The

people of Aricia [72] and of Ardea, who had frequently contended in

arms concerning a disputed piece of land, wearied out by many losses

on either side, appointed the Roman people as arbitrators. When they

arrived to support their claims, an assembly of the people being

granted them by the magistrates, the matter was debated with great

warmth. The witnesses being now produced, when it was time for the

tribes to be called, and for the people to give their votes, Publius

Scaptius, a plebeian advanced in years, rose up and said, "Consuls, if

it is permitted me to speak on the public interest, I will not suffer

the people to be led into a mistake in this matter." When the consuls

said that he, as unworthy of attention, ought not to be heard, and, on

his shouting that the public interest was being betrayed, ordered him

to be put aside, he appealed to the tribunes. The tribunes, as they

are nearly always directed by the multitude rather than direct it,

granted Scaptius leave to say what he pleased in deference to the

people, who were anxious to hear him. He then began: That he was now

in his eighty-third year, and that he had served in that district

which was now in dispute, not even then a young man, as he was already

serving in his twentieth campaign, when operations were going on at

Corioli. He therefore brought forward a fact forgotten by length of

time--one, however, deeply fixed in his memory, namely, that the

district now in dispute had belonged to the territory of Corioli, and,

after the taking of Corioli, it had become come by right of war the

public property of the Roman people. That he was surprised how the

states of Ardea and Aricia could have the face to hope to deprive the

Roman people, whom instead of lawful owners they had made arbitrators;

of a district the right of which they had never claimed while the

state of Corioli existed. That he for his part had but a short time

to live; he could not, however, bring himself, old as he now was, to

desist claiming by his voice, the only means he now had, a district

which, as a soldier, he had contributed to acquire, as far as a man

could. That he strenuously advised the people not to ruin their own

interest by an idle feeling of delicacy.

The consuls, when they perceived that Scaptius was listened to not

only in silence, but even with approbation, calling gods and men to

witness, that a disgraceful enormity was being committed, summoned

the principal senators: with them they went round to the tribes,

entreated, that, as judges, they would not be guilty of a most heinous

crime, with a still worse precedent, by converting the subject of

dispute to their own interest, more especially when, even though it

may be lawful for a judge to look after his own interest, so much

would by no means be acquired by keeping the land, as would be lost by

alienating the affections of their allies by injustice; for that the

loss of reputation and confidence was of greater importance than could

be estimated. Was this the answer the ambassadors were to carry home;

was this to go out to the world; were their allies to hear this; were

their enemies to hear it--with what sorrow the one--with what joy the

other? Could they suppose that the neighbouring states would ascribe

this proceeding to Scaptius, an old babbler at assemblies? That

Scaptius would be rendered distinguished by this statue: but that the

Roman people would assume the character of a corrupt informer [73]

and appropriator of the claims of others. For what judge in a private

cause ever acted in such a way as to adjudge to himself the property

in dispute? That even Scaptius himself would not act so, though he had

now outlived all sense of shame. Thus the consuls, thus the senators

exclaimed; but covetousness, and Scaptius, the adviser of that

covetousness, had more influence. The tribes, when convened, decided

that the district was the public property of the Roman people. Nor can

it be denied that it might have been so, if they had gone to other

judges; but, as it is, the infamy of the decision is not in any

way diminished by the justice of the cause: nor did it appear more

disgraceful or more repulsive to the people of Aricia and of Ardea,

than it did to the Roman senate. The remainder of the year continued

free from disturbances both at home and abroad. [74]

Footnotes:

[Footnote 1: The ager publicus or public land consisted of the landed

estates which had belonged to the kings, and were increased by land

taken from enemies who had been captured in war. The patricians had

gained exclusive occupation of this, for which they paid a nominal

rent in the shape of produce and tithes: the state, however, still

retained the right of disposal of it. By degrees the ager publicus

fell into the hands of a few rich individuals, who were continually

buying up smaller estates, which were cultivated by slaves, thus

reducing the number of free agricultural labourers.]

[Footnote 2: Directly, rather than by lot as was usual.]

[Footnote 4: In later times the censor performed this office.--D.O.]

[Footnote 5: This decree was practically a bestowal of absolute

power.--D.O.]

[Footnote: In later times the proconsul was the consul of the previous

year, appointed to act as such over one of the provinces.--D.O.]

[Footnote 7: This gate was on the west side, in the rear, farthest

from the enemy: it was so called from the decumanus, a line drawn from

east to west, which divided the camp into two halves: see note in

revised edition of Prendeville's Livy.]

[Footnote 8: August 1st]

[Footnote 9: The consular year, not the civil one, which began in

January: the time at which the consuls entered upon office varied very

much until B.C. 153, when it was finally settled that the date of

their doing so should be January 1st.]

[Footnote 10: Called "Via Praenestina" beyond Gabii.]

[Footnote 11: That is, broke up camp.--D.O.]

[Footnote 12: The people of Rome had been divided in early times into

thirty curies: each of these had an officiating priest, called curio,

and the whole body was under the presidency of the curio maximus.]

[Footnote 13: The ten leading senators held the office in rotation for

five days each, until the consular comitia were held.--D.O.]

[Footnote 14: August 11th]

[Footnote 15: A lesser form of triumph.]

[Footnote 16: The Sibylline books, supposed to have been sold to

Tarquinius Superbus by the Sibyl of Cumæ: they were written in Greek

hexameter verses. In times of emergency and distress they were

consulted and interpreted by special priests (the duumviri here

mentioned).]

[Footnote 17: It will be frequently observed that the patricians

utilized their monopoly of religious offices to effect their own

ends.--D.O.]

[Footnote 18: Curule chairs of office.]

[Footnote 19: That is, recruits.--D.O.]

[Footnote 20: The worst quarter of the city--its White chapel as it

were. It lay, roughly speaking, from the Forum eastward along the

valley between Esquiline and Viminial Hills.--D.O.]

[Footnote 21: That is, to insure punishment and practically abnegate

the right an accused person had of escaping sentence by voluntary

exile.--D.O.]

[Footnote 22: Perhaps the first bail-bond historically noted.--D.O.]

[Footnote 23: That is, refused to accept the plea.]

[Footnote 24: That is, defended them in court.]

[Footnote 25: The Temple of Jupiter in the Capitol was divided into

three parts: the middle was sacred to Jupiter, the right to Minerva,

the left to Juno. By "other gods" are meant Terminus, Fides,

Juventas.]

[Footnote 26: Publicola, the father of Brutus.]

[Footnote 27: That is, personal violence from the young

patricians.--D.O.]

[Footnote 28: Their control over the auspices was a favourite weapon

of the patricians, and one which could naturally be better used at

a distance from Rome. The frequency of its use would seem to argue

adaptability in the devotional feelings of the nobles at least, which

might modify our reliance upon the statement made above as to the

respect for the gods then prevalent in Rome.--D.O.]

[Footnote 29: This was the limit of the tribunes' authority.--D.O.]

[Footnote 30: This gate, from which at a later date the Via Appia and

the Via Latina started, stood near what is now the junction of the Via

S. Gregorio with the Vi di Porta S. Sebastiano.--D.O.]

[Footnote 31: By drawing part of the Roman army to the defence of the

allied city.--D.O.]

[Footnote 32: Two spears were set upright and a third lashed across.

To pass through and under this "yoke" was, among the Italian states,

the greatest indignity that could be visited upon a captured army. It

symbolized servititude in arms.--D. O.]

[Footnote 33: This would seem to augur some treachery, unless we are

to believe that only the young men taken in the citadel were

sent under the yoke, the slaughter took place among the flying

besiegers.--D.O.]

[Footnote 34: "Quæstors," these officers are first mentioned in Book

II, ch. xii. In early times it appears to have been part of their duty

to prosecute those guilty of treason, and to carry the punishment into

execution.]

[Footnote 35: Evidently a new pretext for delay.--D.O.]

[Footnote 36: A little beyond Crustumerium, on the Via Salaria.--D.O.]

[Footnote 37: Possibly to one assigned to him officially.

Freese regards the expression as inconsistent with his alleged

poverty.--D.O.]

[Footnote 38: A curious feature of a triumph were the disrespectful

and often scurrilous verses chanted by the soldiers at the expense of

their general--D.O.]

[Footnote 39: The meaning of this passage is obscure. Many

explanations have been attempted, none of which, to my mind, is quite

satisfactory.--D.O.]

[Footnote 40: Priest of Quirinus.--D. O.]

[Footnote 41: The law forbade burial within the limits of the city

except in certain cases.--D.O.]

[Footnote 42: That is, relinquished his right of acting as judge in

favour of the people and of popular trial.--D.O.]

[Footnote 43: A new law was hung up in the Forum for public

perusal.--D.O.]

[Footnote 44: As in the case of a dictator. At first half, and finally

all, of the consular lictors carried only the fasces.--D.O.]

[Footnote 45: That is, the incumbents of the past year, now of right

private persons, their term of office having expired.--D. O.]

[Footnote 46: The fine for non-attendance.--D.O.]

[Footnote 47: As being out of order, the senate having been convened

to consider the war.]

[Footnote 48: Rex Sacrificulus (see note, page 73).--D.O.]

[Footnote 49: As having been improperly convened.--D.O.]

[Footnote 50: That is, of Valerius, but rather of Appius himself in

restraining him from precipitating matters.--D.O.]

[Footnote 51: Appius's argument is that, if Verginia was living in a

state of slavery under Claudius, as any one might institute an action

to establish her liberty, she would be entitled to her liberty until

the matter was settled: but as she was now living under her father's

protection, and was his property by the right of the patria potestas,

and he was absent, and as other person had a right to keep or defend

her, she ought to be given up to the man who claimed to be her master,

pending her father's return.]

[Footnote 52: Venus Cloacina (she who cleanses).--D.O.]

[Footnote 53: On two sides of the forum were colonnades, between the

pillars of which were tradesmen's booths known as "the Old Booths" and

"the New Booths."]

[Footnote 54: That is, to the infernal gods.]

[Footnote 55: See Macaulay's "Lays of Ancient Rome: Verginia."]

[Footnote 56: The civilian togas.--D. O.]

[Footnote 57: Appius Claudius, a member of their order.--D. O.]

[Footnote 58: From the Colline gate.--D.O.]

[Footnote 59: From whose decision an appeal would lie.]

[Footnote 60: The church of S. Caterina de' Fernari now stands within

its lines.--D.O.]

[Footnote 61: Evidently this could not apply to a dictator.--D. O.]

[Footnote 62: The name consul, although used by Livy (Bk. I, ch. Ix),

was not really employed until after the period of the decemvirs. The

title in early use was prætor: it is not definitely known when the

name judex was attached to the office.]

[Footnote 63: I question the rendering of this sentence. To read

plebis for plebi would very much improve the sense.--D.O.]

[Footnote 64: Twenty years.--D.O.]

[Footnote 65: The misfortunes of the previous campaign were supposed

to exert an influence on the present one.--D.O.]

[Footnote 66: The cavalry at this period wore no defensive armour, and

carried only an ox-hide buckler and a light lance.--D.O.]

[Footnote 67: A victorious general who had entered the city could not

afterward triumph.--D.O.]

[Footnote 68: It was first necessary for these to be adopted into

plebeian families, as none but plebeians were eligible.--D.O.]

[Footnote 69: It stood about where the Arch of Gallienus now

stands.--D.O.]

[Footnote 70: Each legion was divided into ten cohorts.--D.O.]

[Footnote 71: A not unusual method of forcing the charge, as not

only military honour but religious sentiment forbade the loss of the

standards.--D. O.]

[Footnote 72: About twenty miles from Rome in the Alban Mountains. The

village of Ariccia occupies the site of the ancient citadel.--D. O.]

[Footnote 73: Quadruplatores were public informers, so called because

they received a fourth part of the fine imposed: also used in a

general sense of those who tried to promote their interests by

underhand means.]

[Footnote 74: This is one of the best of Livy's books. The story of

Verginia and of the deposition and punishment of the decemvirs is

unexcelled in historical narrative.--D.O.]

End of Project Gutenberg's Roman History, Books I-III, by Titus Livius